USC’s swim and dive teams step up in joint fashion


Women of Troy win pair of events

The Women of Troy split their team for two simultaneous events, but there was no impact on their success, as they beat San Diego 157.5-125.5 at USC on Friday and won the 2012 SMU Women’s Swimming and Diving Classic in Dallas on Saturday.

“Against USD, the women stepped up in the void of eight of our very best and came away with some outstanding early season performances,” USC coach Dave Salo said. “The women swimming at the SMU Classic are the core of our NCAA championship team and sent a message to the country that we will have a strong yet very young team competing this season.”

USC took five of nine events and led from start to finish in the 2012 SMU Women’s Swimming and Diving Classic. The event featured six teams with eight swimmers each, and only one swimmer was allowed for each ‘A’ and ‘B’ heat. USC finished the event with 366 points, followed by North Carolina (292.5), Florida (289), Texas (268), Louisville (236) and SMU (209.5).

The quartet of junior Kasey Carlson and freshmen Jasmine Tosky, Kendyl Stewart, and Kasia Wilk started the day off by winning the 200y medley relay in 1:39.83, beating second-place Texas by more than two seconds.

Tosky also won the 200y fly in 1:55.12, while senior Haley Anderson won the ‘B’ final in 2:00.62, and junior Meghan Hawthorne followed with a win in the 200y IM in 1:58.80, with junior Stina Gardell winning the ‘B’ final in 1:59.15.

Anderson, last year’s NCAA 500y free champion, finished second in the 500y free in 4:46.46 — UNC’s Stephanie Peacock won the event with a 4:38.39.

Gardell took second in the 200y breast (2:12.81), and Tosky won the ‘B’ final. Stewart won the 200y back in 1:54.11, which was one second better than USC’s best time in the event last year and three seconds faster than second place. Junior Meghan Hawthorne took the ‘B’ final in 1:57.86.

Carlson beat out her best time from last year in the 100y free by 0.05, winning the event in 49.05, and Wilk took the ‘B’ final in 50.51.

USC’s 200y free relay team finished a mere 0.25 out of first, with Carlson, Stewart, Stenkvist and Wilk taking third in 1:33.09.

Finally, freshman Sam Adams scored 252.10 points on the 3-meter springboard to finish fifth.

Against USD, sophomore Andrea Kropp led USC with three wins, and sophomore Lynette Lim added two more against the Toreros to help the Women of Troy improve to 2-0 on the year.

USC started the event with a win in the 200y medley relay, followed by a sweep in the 1,000y free. Freshman Nikki Chang took first for USC’s first individual win in the meet in 10:09.52, followed by junior Andrea Basaraba (10:13.32) and senior Chelsea Wild (10:30.47).

Lim, who earned All-American honors as a freshman, led another USC sweep in the 200y free, taking first in 1:49.97. Senior All-American Christel Simms took second in 1:52.91, and senior Kate Shumway finished in third in 1:53.00.

Senior All-American Yumi So then took the 100y back in 56.16, with sophomore Ashley Brewer finishing in second in 57.82, and San Diego’s Sarah Reirson took third in 59.79.

Kropp, who transferred to USC last year and was a 2012 Olympic Trials finalist in the 200y breast, won her first event of the day by finishing the 100y breast in 1:02.32. Senior Jordan Danny finished second in 1:05.34, while San Diego’s Sammi Cohn took third in 1:06.54.

USD won the next two races, with Keenan Lineback and Jacquie Kimmel taking the 200y fly (2:05.54) and 50y free (24.25), respectively. Wild finished second in the 200y fly in 2:08.53, and senior All-American Lindsay Parrish finished tied for second in the 50y free with USD’s Francesca Finucane (24.66).

Simms won her third event of the day, the 100y free, in 51.06, leading another USC sweep with Shumway in second (52.65) and Kimmel in third (52.68). Brewer would then take the 200y back in 2:02.90. So finished second in 2:05.79, while Rierson took third in 2:06.15.

Kropp earned her second and third wins of the meet in the 200y breast and 400y IM, with senior Jessica Schmitt finishing second in both events. Kropp beat out Schmitt 2:10.98 to 2:12.20 in the 200y breast and 4:13.44 to 4:14.09 in the 400y IM.

Lim won the 500y free, her second win of the day, in 4:55.30. Chang took second in 5:01.06, with Lineback taking third in 5:05.93. The event ended with San Diego winning the 400y free relay, beating out USC 3:31.26 to 3:33.27.

Trojans take season opener

The USC men’s swimming team also won its season opener at home against North Carolina State 173-119 on Saturday.

The Trojans were led by sophomore Cristian Quintero’s three freestyle wins. Quintero, an All-American as a freshman and a Venezuelan Olympian, swept the 100y (44.66), 200y (1:37.52) and 500y free (4:31.77), with the 500y free win leading a sweep. Sophomore Chad Bobrosky finished just behind Quintero in 4:31.88, while junior Nick Johnson took third in 4:33.64.

Freshman Ted Singley and sophomore Cary Wright spearheaded a 1-2-3-4 finish in the 1000y free, finishing in 9:18.98 and 9:20.53, respectively.

Senior Alex Lendrum, a 2012 All-American, won both the 100y back (48.57) and 200y back (1:45.44). Sophomore Luca Spinazzola took second in the 100y back in 49.54, while junior Chase Bloch finished second in the 200y back in 1:46.04.

Freshman Morten Klarskov followed with wins in the 100y breast (55.66) and 200y breast (1:59.01).

Senior Justin DiFederico, sophomore transfer Dakota Hodgson, and Wright completed a 1-2-3 sweep of the 200y fly, finishing with times of 1:47.90, 1:48.11 and 1:50.53, respectively. DiFederico then won the 400y IM in 3:58.41, with junior Sean Mulroy finishing in second in 4:00.47.

The 200y medley relay of Lendrum, Klarskov, Block and Quintero gave USC a win in the 200y medley relay in 1:28.98. The 200y free relay team of freshman Fred Abramyan, Bloch, freshman Zach Wagner and junior Jack Wagner took second in 1:21.78.

When asked about the performance of the men’s team, coach Salo said: “Motivated by the challenge to turn things around from the subpar performances on Friday, the men dominated nearly every event on Saturday morning.”